I have always wondered why there are so few biographies about great Saudi men and women available in English, so I can only welcome the release of “Mohammed Alsubeaei: A Journey of Poverty and Wealth” co-written by Huda Alsubeaei, the second eldest daughter of Sheikh Mohammed’s ten children and Gene W. Heck.
Huda’s love, pride and respect for her father are the reason not only for the book itself but also for the way it was written. She wanted first and foremost, a biography that would meet her father’s approval. Therefore, much of the book focuses on Mohammed Alsubeaei’s staunch piety and beautiful character that are so much part of his remarkable success.
Born in 1915 in the town of Unayzah in the Najd, Alsubeaei lost his father when he was only 11 years old. This event changed his life as he felt morally obliged to support his mother and younger brother Abdullah despite his very young age. In those days, poverty was widely spread in the Arabian Peninsula and the inhabitants of Najd would often travel to the Hejaz, Syria or India to find work. He decided to move to Makkah and work for his uncle Nasser. At that time, merchants from all over the Islamic world gathered in the holy city. Alsubeaei still remembers the first journey of his life:
“…the trip was tedious, the road long, and the water scarce. We reached a well called Al-Atimah, near Al-Dawadimi, whose water was muddy, but we drank it anyway, because we could find no other.”
Alsubeaei’s first job was carrying water to his uncle’s home as well as doing some odd jobs in his shop, and he was working up to 16 hours a day. After 16 months, Alsubeaei thought it was time to look for a more lucrative work. He was unusually mature for his age and was clearly aware that he needed more money to take proper care of his mother and brother. He was also extremely ambitious. Although he was upset at having to quit his school studies, far from feeling frustrated and bitter, he decided to be successful in his work, instead.
During the next four years, he worked in the building industry as a guard, a clerk and an inspector before returning to Makkah where he became a street peddler until he met fortuitously, his first business partner, Sulaiman Bin Ghunaym.
This first commercial venture marks the beginning of his successful business career. The shop in Al-Judriah specialized in thawbs and cotton goods. However, over time, money-changing developed as a separate business and this eventually became Alsubeaei’s main profession. Alsubeaei and his brother established in 1938, the Mohammed and Abdullah Ibrahim Alsubeaei Company for Money-Changing and Trade.
Alsubeaei has some interesting anecdotes about transporting gold, silver and currencies in those days: “If a car carrying gold or silver broke down, the driver would leave it in the care of his assistant and go to Riyadh or Jeddah seeking spare parts to repair it. When he returned, he would find it just as he had left it”.
And whenever the Alsubeaei brothers sent gold by plane, they would take the gold, silver as well as bags of money, bury them in the sand and sleep on them. Early, next morning, they would send this precious cargo with one of the passengers.
Sulaiman Abdulaziz Al-Rajhi, a fellow Islamic banker and a friend 60 years, says that, “a quality contributing greatly to his success, has been his ability to engender trust among everyone with whom he deals” while Dr. Al-Zamil praises his dedication to charitable activities which is not surprising. Alsubeaei is known for his compassion (hanan) and his favorite motto is: “May I be able to extend blessings to others as God has blessed me.”
Alsubeaei established the Mohammed and Abdullah Alsubeaei Charitable Foundation and he is also a member of the King Abdulaziz and Associates Foundation for Sponsoring the Gifted. Furthermore, he is a founding member of both the Charitable Organization for Caring for Orphans and the Charitable Organization for Caring for the Disabled and many others. However, known for his modesty, he says: “I prefer not to talk about our charitable works except from the standpoint of encouraging others to do the same”.
Alsubeaei ranks amongst the pioneers who have built the economy of modern Saudi Arabia. Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Muqayrin who closely worked with Alsubeaei in the establishment of Bank Albilad rightly says that, “Mohammed Alsubeaei is the product of an age wherein honor transcended profit motive and was the prevailing leitmotif, since it issued from the pure hearts of those who also sought for others, what they wanted for themselves. Deeming him to be the prototype of a pioneering age, he cites his generation as one that produced an economic model that has economically transformed Saudi Arabia and thus is one that merits careful contemplation now.”
Full of ambitions, Alsubeaei, in his quest for success, always kept in his mind the following maxim: “There is no difficulty if one beseeches God to facilitate matters, “in testimony to the assertion of the Almighty: “For those who fear God, He prepares a way, and He provides for him in a way he cannot imagine.”
God came to his aid when he met Sulaiman bin Ghunaym, a merchant from Makkah who was searching for an honest person to take over his work during a six months absence. When Sulaiman bin Ghunaym returned, he was so impressed by Alsubeaei’s honesty and dedication that he decided to leave his partner in Makkah and move to Riyadh to look after his business.
Success came in the form of a contract they signed with the Ministry of Finance to provide it with cloaks and other items. At the same time, they also began remitting the salaries of the Ministry of Education throughout the Kingdom.
We are reminded in the epilogue that this biography is but a brief account of a great man and the full story would take volumes. I just wish Huda Alsubeaei had done just that and written more about her father. This story of an 11-year-old boy who began his professional life as a water carrier and ended up as the founder of Bank Albilad, one of the largest Islamic banks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is indeed fascinating. However, at the end of the book, we are still yearning for more anecdotes and details about Mohammad Alsubeaei’s exceptional life.
Book Review: Mohammed Alsubeaei: A Journey of Poverty and Wealth
Book Review: Mohammed Alsubeaei: A Journey of Poverty and Wealth
St. Francis relics go on public show for first time in Italy
Assisi, Italy: Saint Francis of Assisi’s skeleton is going on public display from Sunday for the first time for the 800th anniversary of his death, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Inside a nitrogen-filled plexiglass case with the Latin inscription “Corpus Sancti Francisci” (The Body of St. Francis), the remains are being shown in the Italian hill town’s Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Francis, who died on October 3, 1226, founded the Franciscan order after renouncing his wealth and devoting his life to the poor.
Giulio Cesareo, director of communications for the Franciscan convent in Assisi said he hoped the display could be “a meaningful experience” for believers and non-believers alike.
Cesareo, a Franciscan friar, said the “damaged” and “consumed” state of the bones showed that St. Francis “gave himself completely” to his life’s work.
His remains, which will be on display until March 22, were transferred to the basilica built in the saint’s honor in 1230.
But it was only in 1818, after excavations carried out in utmost secrecy, that his tomb was rediscovered.
Apart from previous exhumations for inspection and scientific examination, the bones of Saint Francis have only been displayed once, in 1978, to a very limited public and for just one day.
Usually hidden from view, the transparent case containing the relics since 1978 was brought out on Saturday from the metal coffer in which it is kept, inside his stone tomb in the crypt of the basilica.
The case is itself inside another bullet-proof and anti-burglary glass case.
Surveillance cameras will operate 24 hours a day for added protection of the remains.
St. Francis is Italy’s patron saint and the 800th anniversary commemorations of his death will also see the restoration of an October 4 public holiday in his honor.
The holiday had been scrapped nearly 50 years ago for budget reasons.
Its revival is also a tribute to late pope Francis who took on the saint’s name.
Pope Francis died last year at the age of 88.
‘Not a movie set’
Reservations to see the saint’s remains already amount to “almost 400,000 (people) coming from all parts of the world, with of course a clear predominance from Italy,” said Marco Moroni, guardian of the Franciscan convent.
“But we also have Brazilians, North Americans, Africans,” he added.
During this rather quiet time of year, the basilica usually sees 1,000 visitors per day on weekdays, rising to 4,000 on weekends.
The Franciscans said they were expecting 15,000 visitors per day on weekdays and up to 19,000 on Saturdays and Sundays for the month-long display of the remains.
“From the very beginning, since the time of the catacombs, Christians have venerated the bones of martyrs, the relics of martyrs, and they have never really experienced it as something macabre,” Cesareo said.
What “Christians still venerate today, in 2026, in the relics of a saint is the presence of the Holy Spirit,” he said.
Another church in Assisi holds the remains of Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who died in 2006 and who was canonized in September by Pope Leo XIV.
Experts said the extended display of St. Francis’s remains should not affect their state of preservation.
“The display case is sealed, so there is no contact with the outside air. In reality, it remains in the same conditions as when it was in the tomb,” Cesareo said.
The light, which will remain subdued in the church, should also not have an effect.
“The basilica will not be lit up like a stadium,” Cesareo said. “This is not a movie set.”
